Tubular sets for the conveyance and handling of blood in an extracorporeal manner generally have bubble trap chambers for the removal of air or other gas bubbles from the blood prior to placing the blood in a dialyzer or other device for processing of the blood, and also prior to returning blood back to the patient.
It is desirable for such bubble removing chambers to have the lowest possible volume, so that they hold a minimum amount of blood flowing through the circuit at any given time. At the same time, it is important for such bubble removing chambers to be very effective in their removal of bubbles even at the high flow rates (up to 500 ml min.) which are recently being used in blood treatment processes such as hemodialysis.
Thus, because of the need for effectiveness of bubble removal chambers at high flow rates, older designs of bubble removal chambers have been found to be deficient, allowing bubbles to pass back into the patient at higher flow rates than rates for which they were designed, or exhibiting undesirably high blood volumes. Preferably, blood volumes of 25 cc or less are desired.
By this invention, a new design of bubble trap chamber is provided which combines effective bubble removal even at high flow rates, coupled with a low blood volume, preferably of no more than 25 cc.